Nice Fun, Eh, Boris?

NICE FUN, EH, BORIS?

RACE WATCH

Add to your list of incredible things to do the laugh-a-minute sport of ice racing. As seen in the detail photo, ice racebikes have long steel spikes mounted on the tires, making impossible lean angles entirely feasible and making any unfortunate crasher subject to perforation. The Soviets are ice racing’s dominant force. The action shot shows Czech Zdenek Kudrna, a fine socialist worker wearing a made-in-U.S.A. capitalist helmet, who led his heats in the 1981 World Championship in Assen, Holland but was unable to dethrone the Soviets due to—get this—“a bad accident.”

It’s like the Ruskies say: “If you can’t nuke ’em, spike ’em.”